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Silver

— Evol Stock —

Black and white, tuned for faces. Seven filters, three film curves, and grain.

Download — free
.xmp · Lightroom Classic, desktop & mobile · 20 KB · no signup
Why these exist

Lightroom's black & white is hard on skin

The default conversion leans almost entirely on the green channel — and green is where blemishes, redness and veins show up strongest. The smooth, even part of skin lives in the red, which the default mostly throws away.

It's doing to a face exactly what a green filter does, which is the one filter every portrait guide tells you not to use. That's the whole reason this pack exists.

How to use it

Two clicks

Set your white balance and exposure first — white balance still matters here, because the conversion reads the colours underneath.

Then click 01 Mono, which just flips the photo to black and white. Then pick one filter from 02. That's the decision that matters. Curves and grain are optional on top.

01 Mono is the one preset with no Amount slider — there's no halfway between colour and black and white. Everything else scales from 0 to 200%.

The decision that matters

Which filter

Start with Yellow. Go warmer for smoother skin, cooler for more texture.

02a
None — Panchromatic
What black and white film actually looks like with no filter on the lens. Skies go pale. Accurate rather than flattering.
02b
Yellow Wratten 8
The safe one, and where to start. Skin lifts gently, blemishes soften a little, sky darkens a little. Hard to go wrong with, on any complexion.
02c
Yellow-Green Wratten 11
Keeps skin texture instead of smoothing it. Good for men and character faces. Fair warning — it makes redness, sunburn and acne more obvious, not less.
02d
Orange Wratten 21
The portrait smoother. Freckles and blemishes drop away and skin reads clean. Can go a bit plastic on very fair skin, and lips wash out toward skin tone.
02e
Red Wratten 25
Porcelain. Blemishes basically vanish. But lips disappear into the face, hair goes dark and the eyes sink. A deliberate look, not a default.
02f
Ortho the silent film look
Reds go dark. Lips nearly black, freckles and blemishes plunge, skin darkens overall. Deliberately unflattering, and great on weathered, documentary faces.
02g
Extended Red infrared territory
Skin glows like it's lit from under the surface. Veins, blemishes and wrinkles all fade at once. Blue eyes go very dark — that's the giveaway.

One thing worth knowing: red and orange bring different complexions closer together, green and blue push them further apart. All of these hold darker skin properly except Ortho, which drives it down hard — so that one wants a deliberate exposure decision rather than a click.

On real files

Shot and edited with these

My own work, straight out of this pack.

A photograph edited with Evol Silver
A photograph edited with Evol Silver
A photograph edited with Evol Silver
The rest of it

Curves and grain

None of these curves is an S. An S-curve steepens exactly where skin sits, which makes every blotch and beard shadow louder while flattening the highlights that carry the shape of a face. These build their contrast above and below skin instead.

03a
Tri-X
Rolls off the highlights, so a lit cheek doesn't clip. The forgiving one — use it when there's a white dress in frame.
03b
HP5
More separation on the shadow side of a face. Neutral — doesn't impose much.
03c
Delta
Renders skin literally, every pore separated. Less forgiving, more controllable.
04a
Silver Fine
Conservative. Grain in the midtones actually helps a face — it breaks up the smoothness and hides small blemishes.
04b
Silver Coarse
A look. Better on a wide or full-length frame than a close portrait, because grain on the shadow side of a face breaks up the shape.
Using more than one pack

Silver with Emulsion and Nightfall

Silver mostly doesn't mix with the others, since it removes the colour they work on. Where it does overlap — the curves and the grain — whichever you click last wins.

Silver deliberately leaves Colour Grading alone, so if you tone your black and whites, your toning survives everything here.

Installing

Same as the last one

Lightroom Classic

Develop → Presets panel → the + button → Import Presets.

If nothing shows up, quit Lightroom completely and reopen it.

Lightroom desktop

File → Import Profiles & Presets → select the zip.

Lightroom mobile

Open a photo → Edit → Presets → tap Yours → three-dot menu → Import Presets.

The import button only lives under "Yours".
The fine print, briefly

Use them on anything

Personal work, client work, prints, commercial jobs — all fine, no attribution needed, though it's always nice. Just please don't resell the files, put them in a paid bundle, or re-host the download somewhere else. Link back here instead so people get the current version. Provided as-is; every photo you make with them is entirely yours.

go point it at a face
Download Silver
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